Suspected members of the Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have killed 20 civilians in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province, local sources confirmed on Thursday.
The victims were taken hostage during an ADF raid on Tuesday in Babila Babombi, a village in the Mambasa region, an area frequently attacked by the ADF and other militia groups, according to local police administrator Matadi Muyapandi.
“There are 20 dead — 16 men and four women,” he said. Muyapandi said, adding that four individuals who managed to escape are currently receiving treatment in hospital.
The victims were reportedly decapitated, a signature method of execution by the ADF. The rebel group, originally composed of mainly Muslim Ugandan militants, has been entrenched in eastern DR Congo for nearly three decades and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians.
In recent months, there has been an increase in such brutal attacks. According to Rams Malikidogo, a human rights activist in Mambasa, the victims were captured during several assaults on nearby villages before being “gathered in the forest and executed.”
Many of the victims were gold miners, traders, and farmers, said a local aid worker who requested anonymity. He stressed the need for military intervention to retrieve the bodies and ensure they receive proper burials.
The ADF swore allegiance to the Islamic State in 2019, which now recognises the group as its affiliate in Central Africa.
The ADF has been accused of committing massacres against civilians in DR Congo and launching attacks in neighbouring Uganda.
Despite joint military operations between Congolese and Ugandan forces since late 2021 aimed at dismantling the ADF in North Kivu and Ituri, the group continues to launch deadly assaults on civilians. Some experts believe these operations have merely pushed the rebels into more remote areas, where they continue their attacks.